December 2016

Cloud Developer Population Forecasts 2017

How many backend developers are there, and how is their profile evolving?

Not only are backend and cloud development becoming more and more central to how software is implemented; it is at the same time becoming more and more accessible and affordable to a wide range of developers and companies.
In this report, we’ll put the spotlight on those backend developers. We estimate their numbers and their distribution across regions, as well as the goals of cloud developers and their means to make money. We also derive estimates of the addressable market for technologies that are used by cloud developers.

Already, public cloud services are a $200B business in 2016. As mobile apps get more sophisticated, they need a better backend. As billions of IoT devices come online, much of the data they generate will be stored and processed on a backend in the cloud. And also much of the machine learning that we’ll see being developed in the coming years will be run on dedicated, specialised hardware in public data centers. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are placing big bets on cloud technology.

Not only are backend and cloud development becoming more and more central to how software is implemented; it is at the same time becoming more and more accessible and affordable to a wide range of developers and companies.

In this report, we’ll put the spotlight on those backend developers. We estimate their numbers and their distribution across regions, as well as the goals of cloud developers and their means to make money. We also derive estimates of the addressable market for technologies that are used by cloud developers.

Our estimate draws on data from over 34,000 cloud developers in 140+ countries surveyed in 2015 and 2016.

The Cloud Developer Population Forecasts 2017 report comes with a single user license. If you are interested in an enterprise-wide license please contact us.

How will the DNA of the cloud developer population - the mix of developer segments - evolve?

Which revenue models are on the rise in the cloud developer community, and which are falling out of fashion?

How big is the addressable market for cloud developer tools and platforms?

To get a full list of this report’s contents and a sample graph, please download the brochure.

We use our solid mobile developer population estimate as an absolute-number anchor point to derive the cloud developer population. In each survey, we ask respondents about their involvement in backend and mobile development, among other areas. Hence we also know the overlap between these two sectors. Given an estimate for one population, we can estimate the size of the other.

Taking our estimate and forecast of the global cloud developer population as a starting point, we have used survey data to break down the population across regions, developer segments, revenue models used, and developer tools used. The Developer Economics survey is conducted twice per year. As such, we have rich historical data to draw from. The research in this report draws on data going back to the 9th edition from Q2 2015 - the first edition in which we included cloud developers. Since then, over 34,000 backend developers from 140+ countries have responded.